Pakistan: Victims of Bhoja Air plane crash buried

Mourning relatives in Karachi carry the coffin of a passenger killed in the Bhoja Air accident. All 127 people on board died when the Boeing 737 from Karachi crashed and burst into flames as it attempted to land at Islamabad's airport on Apr. 20.

Credit:

Asif Hassan

The first funerals have been held for some of the 127 victims of Friday's Bhoja Air plane crash in Pakistan.

AFP reports that 13 of those killed where buried in the capital Islamabad late on Saturday, while funerals were held for 36 others around the country early on Sunday.

The Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences has yet to identify the remains of four of the victims, according to the South Asian News Agency (SANA), which explains that they were all recovered from the crash site around a village near Islamabad. It says that 113 of the bodies have been handed over to relatives.

A local reporter for BBC's Urdu service described how body parts had been strewn over several miles, and rescuers were tasked with collected as many of the remains as possible to help with the identification process.

The Bhoja Airline was carrying passengers from Karachi to Islamabad when it came down in bad weather, and the Pakistan Observer says that Pakistan International Airlines has flown the bodies of six victims back to the city.

It has also set up a support desk at Karachi airport, and organized a special flight to take 94 relatives to Islamabad.

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